During the last decade, a dramatic change in consumer eating patterns has been observed. Longer working hours, changing family structures and the pursuit of a healthier lifestyle are all factors that have influenced food purchasing decisions. As a result, consumers typically seek out foods that taste fresh, require minimal preparation time, can be microwaved, are conveniently packaged, and/or are portable.
The use of baking is a food process well known to food manufacturers as a preparation vehicle for foods that meet the aforementioned characteristics. For example, the baking industry which typically manufactures cupcakes, cookies, and bars, has experienced phenomenal growth as consumers now incorporate these baked foods during their eating occasions. In fact, the snack food industry, which originated in the baking industry, is prospering due to the sales of foods that are fresh-tasting, conveniently-packaged and portable. One area of the baking industry that is yet to be fully developed is the creation of high quality hand-held, portable, yeast-leavened bread products, such as hand-held pizzas, sandwiches, or any bread-type product with a topping and/or filling.
The lack of high quality products in this area is due in part to the fact that manufacturing hand-held, yeast-leavened bread products is typically challenging due to a number of variables. For example, yeast-leavened bread products undergo yeast leavening, which is a fermentation process that depends on factors such as yeast viability, temperature, pH, starch concentration, and/or moisture. Controlling each of these factors is difficult, therefore, product quality often varies from one day to the next. Additionally, the incorporation of fillings, such as tomato sauces, cheese sauces, peanut butter, jams, jellies, or creams, into yeast-leavened bread products is also challenging since the filling may leak out from inside of the yeast-leavened bread product, and thus, destroy the overall organoleptic qualities of the yeast-leavened bread product. Inconsistent textural properties within the bread portion is another hurdle that food manufacturers must overcome, especially if application of heat, particularly microwave heat, is required to complete preparation of the yeast-leavened bread product. In the past, food manufacturers have incorporated unleavened dough products in dough-based food products, and avoided yeast-leavened bread products. Clearly, there is a need in the baking industry for the manufacture of hand-held, portable, yeast-leavened bread products to meet growing consumer demand.
The present invention includes a method for producing a frozen, filled, yeast-leavened bread product, such as a frozen, stuffed submarine sandwich, by co-extruding an unrisen yeast-bread dough and a filling through an extruder that is capable of at least encasing the filling with the unrisen yeast-bread dough to form a filled, unrisen yeast-bread dough; shaping the filled, unrisen yeast-bread dough to eliminate leaking of the filling; proofing, baking, enrobing and freezing the filled yeast-bread dough to form a frozen, baked, filled, yeast-leavened bread product. The present invention further includes extruding the unrisen yeast-bread dough through a unique dual nozzle configuration with a shutter adjustment to eliminate substantially all leaking of the filling from out of the frozen, filled, yeast-leavened bread product.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a bread dough and filling are co-extruded through an extruder and the co-extruded bread dough and filling are pinched off into discrete units in order to form a closed, filled bread dough with substantially no leakage of filling from the bread dough. In another embodiment of the present invention, a filled bread dough is proofed (raised), baked and enrobed with an oil component in order to form a filled yeast-bread product with an extended interior and exterior shelf life.